Apparently this guy's heajoints are a gift from god to professional flutist. Despite all the different flute makers out there and the strong loyalty they recieve from their customers, it seems like the Lafin Headjoint has crossed the divde and is finding it's self on all kinds of flutes; Sanyo, Murumatsu, Powell, Brannen, Burkhart and beyond.

There is a strong fashion element in flute heads. For example if Galway happens to be playing on head XYZ, then many players assume it must be the Rolls Royce of heads. Some time recently Galway WAS playing on a LaFin. I don't know if he still does. If so, he may well be on a different one next year.

LaFin obviously makes very good heads, but take away that fashion element, and there may be many other brands of head that are equally as good, or better, depending on individual tastes.

Another factor to consider is that a head that is ideal for a top professional may need more skill to control, and be less suitable for a good amateur player. i.e., an average guy will probably be a lot happier driving an average sedan to do the shopping, rather than driving a racing car to do the shopping.

There are two choices: with or without 'Adler'. This is a kind of wing, which guides the air flow.

He recently found that the mass of head cork stopper will change the resonance of sound. He now adopts a much heavier stopper.

Of course, it will be better to ask details to him directly.

BTW, even Albert Cooper tried to start studying mouthpiece design more seriously after his study on scaling.(Unfortunately, he became ill.)
Mouthpiece design may be a field where many things remain to be researched.

"He recently found that the mass of head cork stopper will change the resonance of sound. He now adopts a much heavier stopper."

I am highly suspicious, in view of the hype and distortion of truth for the purpose of marketing, that seems to surround most if not all flute makers....

Did he give the details of NON-subjective testing that demonstrated this?

It is very rare for ANY flute maker to present results form valid experiments to substantiate claims. I believe that this is because most claims are closer to beliefs than reality. Most of them are probably in the same category as snake oil was in a bygone era, presented in order to extract money from the gullible.

I would not be a bit surprised to next see a magnet embedded in the crown, to enhance the sound waves.

Healthy scepticism? My exposure to the marketing wiles in the flute world certainly deserve it!

I am playing a Muramatsu flute with a new J.R.Lafin 9/14ct gold headjoint with Adler wings. The headjoint is really great, beautiful tone color and easy to play. The Adler wings feels good to me while playing. The intonation is far easier than my Muramatsu original headjoint. Lafin make very good headjoints indeed.

Hello respected flute players from this forum, I would like to help clearing this little misunderstanding with the "Flute Headjoint" point.

A "professional" head joint is a blurry concept, you can find professional flutists from all over the world, and in asking them what do they understand for a "professional headjoint" you will get very diferent answers, or abolute silence... There is no elements wich are just available for profesional flutist and forbbiden for amateurs or students!

Also, a "poorly made headjoint" (bad quality) will stop an student from rising his level, and in many cases, the student will think that the problem IS in him.

I have played with poorly made flutes until past year, when I have bought a very good headjoint, Inmediately, I realized that EVERYTHING was easyer to do. I mean, the easyness of producing clean sound, in every dynamics (piano, forte...) the slurring process got easier, the ppppp gone without aall the stress. Even if I had to get familiar with my new headjoint, I was very happy that IT WAS THERE, the sound could get out, there was a change.

If this would have happened to me when I started, I'm sure that I would not have get a lot of bad "fluting habits" and my progress would have been faster, with a lot less of dificulties, that's sure.

Now, last week I got a new flute (used muramatsu) with a headjoint tube in silver, lip plate/riser Lafin in 14ct gold, and I have felt the difference with my old flute, I'ts a matter of quality of the composition of sound, I got a richer sound, without losing the easyness of response that I had in my Bonneville headjoint tube, with lipplate/riser Emanuel in sterling silver. So, the choice was obvious, the two headjoints are great, but this time it was the characteristic "sound" of materials wich was important to think about.

So, finally, I don't think that there are headjoints for professionals wich can only be used because of the difficulty of making a good sound out of them, I'ts just the opposite, much more easyer, much more richer sound, better! and as long as we can acces to higher priced headjoints, It will be to make our lives more easy, not to enter into the "Elite" of flutist with problematics headjoints...

PS: I didnt know that Galway used a Lafin headjoint... for me he was always mr. Muramatsu

Hi, I played with one of his heads once, and let me tell you, it's really a pleasure. The sound is incredible, I love it ! In fact, I contacted him and asked him if he could make one for me. I hope he has the time to, because he told me he was very busy. I'll see in 2 weeks !

I had been on the waiting list for a silver lafin head with gold lip for about 3 months when he emailed me to say that he was no longer making silver heads.

I was lucky enough to hear that just flutes in croydon, just outside london, have, i think three, of his last silver heads in stock and have recently bought one from them. They are fantastic, take a little getting used to, but amazing!

I just wanted to let you know in case there is anyone out there who was desperate to try one/get one as they will, if they allready arnt, become very rare.

Oh warning.....be prepared to pay for more than most silver heads!!
(mine with a gold lip cost me just under 3000....ouch!!.....capital one, we like 0% on purchases til 3010!!)

So James, I've played several Lafin heads. The first of them was one that Lafin calls an alloyed head, probably because it's 15% gold. This head was a dream, even though the price was around $4500.00 (likely to be more now) Anyway I was so taken with this head, that I called Mr. Lafin, and I was more complimentary and effusive than I thought I could ever be. I must have done a good job 'cause he put me close top the top of the waiting list. I received my silver Lafin about 45 days thereafter and I have to tell you.....it was a dogggg. Slowww to respond, and just a whole lot of work to play. I called Lafin and very tactfully explained the situation, and to the great astonishment of many, he agreed to make me another one. Well a slight to moderate improvement there, certainly not the be all end all head I was hoping it would be. Keep in mind that I was trying it on an old Brannen with traditional felt pads. I've also played it on a Straubinger flute with drawn tone holes and it was excellent on that flute. Interestingly the head plays differently on every flute I try it on. What I'm saying here is that there are so many variables to consider, and a great head on one flute might be only so so on another flute. Finally the bottom line is that you always sound like you, and the best you can do is to find a setup that assists you in bringing out the positive characteristics in your playing while causing you to jump through the fewest number of hoops. Lastly, and I can tell you from lots of experience, pads can make a huge difference. Have your flute overhauled (Paul Rabinov is a great repair tech in L.A.) with Straubinger or Schmidt "digital pads" and you won't believe the difference. Happy head hunting, Magicflutist

I have been watching this post for some time now and feel obliged to comment.

I have several Lafin head joints and play them all from time to time. My favorite is an 18k with a platinum riser which I use on my platinum flute which is my favorite flute of all my collection.

Let me clarify the term Adler. It was a name given to the little wings on the headjoint manufactured by Rainer Lafin. What better inspiration then the wings of an eagle. They are not there to help people get the “right “place for their lips. Rainer started to put them there because of the experiments carried out by some flute playing scientists who discovered that if you have the riser built too high it apparently gives better low notes bit is no good for the high register. Therefore they kept the riser the regular height and added the “wings” so that it would help the headjoint to play evenly over all the registers.

I personally think it is a great idea. I do have a Muramatsu headjoint 18k with wings and it goes very well indeed.

Penny claims that this is just a sales gimmick used to sell a headjoint. May I humbly ask her how many she has tried in order to write with such authority? ? In my case I tried them long ago but out of loyalty to my friends at the Muramatsu company, I stuck to their heads. About a year ago Rainer came over to see me. He lives about an hour and a half drive away from me. During this visit he showed me a head he had made and I thought it was really a big improvement on what I was using. He then gave me another crown and this also made a huge difference. I had thought the “crown” business was a lot of nonsense till I tried this one. Believe me it makes a difference and so do the wings.

Mark Richter in his note to both my list and the flute list said that the stopper on his Lafin was perfectly machined and I can well believe this. This is just typical of Rainer’s dedication to getting it right. I liked you article Mark and will have all my stoppers checked.

Well from all the people listed below I know that all of them had a choice and they all, like me, choose the “Adler” model. There are some very distinguished people in this list and I don’t think for a moment any of them bought a Lafin Headjoint as a crutch. They bought them because the tone is more even all over the flute, there are more colors, a better attack all over the flute and the intonation is also better.

Rainer is a very dedicated person when it comes to doing anything. He played with me in Berlin from time to time in the Philharmonic when I was there, 1969/75. He was the piccolo player in the Deutsche Opera orchestra when, it was conducted by Lorin Maazel, and when Maestro Maazel went to head the in RIAS Berlin he took Rainer with him.

When Rainer began to make headjoints he did so with the same dedication and research that he applied to playing the flute. At one point in Berlin there were several flute players who made flutes. I have two flutes made by Fenwick Smith who at the time studied with me and played all over town in various orchestras and ensembles. He now plays in the Boston Symphony. I still have these two fine Powell flutes.

All these people were influenced by the Cooper flutes I played when I was solo flute in the Berlin Phil. I had my flutes specially made at a=445. This is the pitch the orchestra plays at, or did when I was in it. They had never heard intonation like this on the flute before. Von Karajan took me aside one day and asked me what the secret was! You can imagine how frustrated he was with sharp high notes on the flute.

Now as to people not giving in to a good thing when they see it is normal. I took my flute to Hammig and asked him to copy it and he refused saying that his were better. Well they were certainly sharper especially in the high register. Here was a great flutemaker with a state of the art flute in his hands and he refused to copy it, even with Albert Cooper’s permission.

I believe that the Haynes company were the last to change their scale where as Brannen did it right away and many others followed.

I cannot say this is a gimmick for selling headjoints but will say that when the rest of the flute making companies wake up to a good idea we will all be better off just as we are better of with the influence of Mr. Cooper with his scale.

In summing up I would say this is not a sales gimmick but an advancement in the art of making headjoints and I am very proud to know Rainer as a friend and to play on his headjoint.

I am looking for one of these heads. Specifically, I'm wanting an 18k rose gold (which comes with 14K rose lip plate, Adler wings, and, I think, crown). If anybody on here has one that has not been fitted to any other flute (I've run into this problem already), then I'm interested. Please let me know here or by private message if you have one for sale or no of someone who is wanting to sell theirs.

Pretty much nobody is parting with Lafin headjoints except Rainer himself and Brannen. If you're looking for one, you'll have to have Brannen make you one. Also, the value doesn't depreciate on this kind of handcrafted instrument so you're not going to save any money buying one used unless the seller is ignorant. You should just bite the bullet and order one from Brannen. Rainer by contract is only allowed to customers in Europe.

I spent the morning at Brannen and tried many of them...amazing. I like the silver with the gold riser and adler wings, and a gold crown. Comes to about $3,400.00 .

New here. Hi everyone ! I am a Muramatsu guy and have on played their flutes for 30 years. I added a silver Lafin with18K wings, riser and crown. The difference was amazing. I've since bout a 9K and I am currently talking with Brannen about adding a 14K HJ to this flute. I found Lafin a dream to play. They are focused, clear, direct and make a beautiful sound. They are pricey not doubt, but they sell at what you paid for them and at a slight profit.